Richers Transport carry heavy freight such as timber and plasterboard up and down the Australian east coast from Cairns to Melbourne. Macks have played a central role in the fleet since 1999, with some of the original Visions still on the road today.

New trucks, same attitude

The new Granites and Tridents that make up the bulk of the fleet today are more sophisticated trucks, but Graham Richers points out that some things have remained the same throughout the last sixteen years.

“Mack have always been easy to do business with,” he says, “I’ve dealt with three salesmen over the years and they’ve all provided excellent aftersales service.”

Richers Transport

Getting correct weight

In heavy freight, a key to success is maximising payload, and one way to get a bit extra onto every load is to shift some weight from the trailer to the prime mover’s steer axle.

“We’re very sensitive to payload,” says Graham, “on a typical loaded rig you might see a weight on the weighbridge of five tonne on the steer axle, but if that steer axle’s in the right place you can get that up to 6.5 tonne. An extra tonne-and-a-half on every load quickly adds up, and that’s what we get with the Trident Axle Back, it’s a good option for us.”

Payload and manoeuvrability

The Richers trucks do their share of highway linehaul, but they also need to get into some tight spaces and through the heavy traffic of major cities like Sydney and Brisbane. This is where Graham’s drivers really appreciate the mDRIVE automated manual transmission.

“The Macks have been very well-received by the drivers. They do a lot of city driving and the mDRIVE makes things a lot easier.”

Graham’s also made sure that his new Macks are Gold Bulldogs with an all-Mack drivetrain.

“I think the uniformity is a good thing, in terms of reliability, ease of servicing and overall performance.”

Price, performance and service

Mack and Richers Transport have travelled many miles together, and with Mack’s share of the fleet growing with every purchase, this looks set to continue.

“Mack are good people to deal with,” says Graham, “they give us trucks that enable us to squeeze a bit extra out of every trip and at a competitive price. They always have the parts we need and their aftersales attitude has been consistently good.”

Clearly it’s a powerful combination, and goes a long way to explain why Richers Transport are on their 100th Mack, and counting.